Well if he produced you and you liked the results, I would go with his recommendations. His recommendations are good. They're sound. Maybe you should Wave buy-buy?

MOTU makes microphone preamps that include the computer interface. Or the computer interface that includes the microphone preamps. Whatever you purchase from them, is generally better suited to Macintosh and the included software that is include, it is more Mac oriented than PC. It's good stuff. I own some of their hardware. Get the Mac book pro and don't worry 'bout nothin'.

Is there something Better? You've got a Beringer and a half a dozen cheap microphones! How did "Better" get into this conversation, unless you are referring to Atlantic City, Reno, Las Vegas, your favorite Native American Casino, etc.? If you bet on Beringer? You lost. Now go buy yourself a bag full of SM57's and a horse with a pointed head.

Is there something Better? You've got a Beringer and a half a dozen cheap microphones! How did "Better" get into this conversation, unless you are referring to Atlantic City, Reno, Las Vegas, your favorite Native American Casino, etc.? If you bet on Beringer? You lost. Now go buy yourself a bag full of SM57's and a horse with a pointed head.

I'll try to be a little more precise for you clueless folks that live in the big-city (just kidding).

"Horse with a pointed head" a.k.a. Mark Of The Unicorn (MOTU) whose microphone preamps, are most likely, better than Beringer. Probably better transient response. Probably lower noise. Probably better headroom (Freedom from upper-level distortion). But if Beringer is all you got..... Work it good.

But you will still need a multitrack computer interface. And while many are available, most of the units that offer 8 or more inputs, frequently include microphone preamps and so, your Beringer would be unnecessary. The Beringer, could be handy however as a monitoring device and a headphone feeding device? You won't need the microphone preamps.

"Where to start" a.k.a. bagO' SM57's, which are inexpensive quality microphones that have appeared on more hit records than any other, especially on drums. All those prepackaged "drum microphone" kits can be useful but I've made incredible recordings of drums with just SM57's. No special bass drum microphones. No special overhead microphones. No special high hat microphones. No special tom microphones. Yup, SM57's actually make reasonable overhead microphones for drums, to guitars, to choirs. And unlike a condenser microphone which can overload, a dynamic microphone will never overload on you. Only improper settings of the microphone preamp will cause you distortion and bad sound.

Everybody is confused by my admiration for SM57's? It's like a toilet. You never want to be without at least one.

I'm not a gambling person and so I believe in "Shure" bets. It's like, I can see pretty good in the dark. But when I'm driving at night, I generally like to have my headlights on. And because I'm experienced and know what I'm doing, I generally don't need to experiment much. On the other hand, to become good with anything, you need to experiment.

I didn't know I could get pregnant from just a kiss, in the dark?
Ms. Remy Ann David

Because with a basic setup with a Motu (I'd say go with something like the 828 MKII if it's any cheaper than you're looking at. It only has two preamps, but you can get something like a mackie mixer which has decent preamps on it, better than behringer (sp?) anyways) PC, be it apple or windows based, and a mixer with drumkit mics is going to run you some where in the neighborhood of about $2800 I'd say. You can always scrounge and go super budget, find a used computer that has good enough computing power for like $500, e-bay a better mixer and used drum mics, and even a used Motu or what ever input device you're looking at and you could possibly put one together for about $1500. If you're starting from scratch that's the bear minimum. Oh, and I didn't include any recording software. Logic express = about $250, that's going to be the cheapest besides garage band if you're going mac. PC, you could probably find a program for a similar price. I ran Cubase SE for a test drive or two and it was only $100.

For computer specs? atleast 2.0 C2D and 2gb of ram. You can record with less, but why?

Biggest hurdle? What recording software and what computer platform are you going to use. Start there and move on imo.

The reason the HD is only 80GB is because I'm only using it to install Cubase onto and maybe two more programs. All saved files are going on a huge external HD.

So the only thing now, if the computer passes your opinions, that I have to buy is the audio interface. And that seems like the Motu is my best bet. I'm looking for one in the range from 400-700. 700 is pushing it though. Alot.

The reason the HD is only 80GB is because I'm only using it to install Cubase onto and maybe two more programs. All saved files are going on a huge external HD.

So the only thing now, if the computer passes your opinions, that I have to buy is the audio interface. And that seems like the Motu is my best bet. I'm looking for one in the range from 400-700. 700 is pushing it though. Alot.

Tell me what you think.

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Looks like a great computer. I would up the internal hard drive to a 7200rpm.

The MOTU is a good bet. It's as good of an interface as you're going to get until you bump your budget up to the $3000-$5000 range. Another one I would urge you to consider in the same range of quality would be the Mackie 400F or the Onyx 1220. They come bundled with a full version of Mackie Tracktion software (DAW) which is an amazing package. Also, they work a little better with PC than the MOTU does.

Remy's right regarding the 57s. A handful of those would definitely get you started. You should be able to record everything with those. At a minimum, 3 would do so long as you have some way to take the bass signal (like a DI or an instrument input on your interface.)